Thea's Market opened on Dock Street last week. It's the closest food market to downtown Tacoma.

I was sniffing out reports of at least one restaurant under development in the Esplanade condo project on Tacoma's Thea Foss Waterway. I saw a few nice, empty spaces. Two of them face the water, such as the view goes: an unimpeded look at the Martinac ship yard. Whatever food and beverages will be served in whatever restaurants go into the Esplanades, I hope they stand up on their own.

While searching for parking along Dock Street, I found an interesting sign of livability next to the Esplanade, at the Thea's Landing : a ground-floor food market, more than four years after the first condo residents moved in.

Thea's Market opened July 3. It's owned by the people from Dock Street Sandwich Co., which occupies a ground-floor space on the opposite end of Thea's Landing.

Shannon Marshall, the daughter of owners Jim and Jayna Marshall, called the store "a mini Trader Joe's," selling pastas, condiments, cheeses, breads, snacks, and, soon, beer and wine. There's even a few household basics.

"Everyone needs toilet paper," Shannon Marshall said.

Except maybe cats. But, for them, Thea's Market has kitty litter.

Thea's Market: 1717 Dock St., Tacoma. Hours: 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sundays.

There's no beer or wine yet, but like the sign says, cold beer's sold at the other end of Thea's Landing.

Yukon River king salmon, with chimichurri and corn, on my deck.

I fell asleep soon after dinner last night. Fitting, since dinner was a dream.

Now that the ice in Alaska’s Yukon River has melted and the Eskimos have taken their share of the fish, Yukon River king salmon are in markets and restaurants. I bought a filet at Johnny’s Seafood in Tacoma yesterday.

It was $35.99 a pound. Johnny’s fishmonger said it would be a buck higher today.

I brushed the fish with my dad’s chimichurri (parsley, garlic, red peppers, red wine vinegar and olive oil) and broiled it, leaving the thickest part rare and cool in the center. I de-cobbed two ears of corn I’d bought at Mosby Farms in Auburn, sautéed the kernels in butter and mixed the corn with a few spoonfuls of chimichurri.

I went to bed hoping I’d dream up a fabulous description for my dinner. I woke up wordless, still dreaming about dinner.

The fish smelled and tasted like the cradle of the rivers and the seas.

The leading edge of a fork tine flaked the flesh.

The flesh barely needed chewing. It was as if this fish – one that stored up enough sustaining body fat to make a 2,000-mile trek to its spawning ground – wanted to slither down my gullet.

If the oils in salmon flesh could power an SUV, humans would wage war over this fish.

Thankfully, Yukon River salmon abound with the good kinds of oils – heart-healthy blah, blah, blah.

I got plenty of sleep last night. But I don’t think I’ve had enough Yukon River salmon yet.